Some Difference! 10/17

Trey Smith

7 Oil and energy companies, and other mega-polluters must be freed to drill offshore almost everywhere, and permitted to poison land and watersheds with fracking to achieve “energy independence”. The Republicans say “drill baby drill” but it seems only Democrats can chill out enough supposed “environmentalists” to make this happen. Obama campaigned on restricting offshore drilling four years ago, and reversed himself just before the BP oil disaster in the Gulf. The White House cooperated with BP in lying to the public about the extent of the disaster and has shielded BO from paying anything like the value of actual damages incurred to livelihoods, human lives and the environment.
~ from Closer Than You Think: Top 15 Things Romney and Obama Agree On by Bruce A. Dixon ~

Just like with climate change, what separates the Democrats from the Republicans is a bunch of rhetorical crap! Democrats SAY they care about the environment, but then they do very little to protect it.

President Obama's handling of the BP oil spill was downright despicable. As Dixon makes clear, Obama was far more concerned about protecting BP (and their campaign contributions) from the public rather than the other way around. Bush received a lot of rightful criticism for the way he handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but it turned out that Obama used the same playbook re the oil spill.

After that calamity, Obama behaved much like a Republican president by wasting little time in opening up offshore drilling again. Even though nothing had changed -- there weren't any better safeguards in place -- he gave the oil industry a big thumbs up. With a Democratic president embracing the GOP's blueprint, how could Romney make the situation much worse?